Chapter 36: Strawberry

-- SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009 (8 DAYS LATER) --

I thrust forward a final time, grunting my orgasm into Dawn’s ear as a quart of spunk flowed out of me and into her sucking pussy. My best friend dug her heels into my ass, tightening her arms around my back to pull me deeper as she felt the cum flowing out of my body crash against her insides like waves cresting on the beach. The first wave would start receding only to be met by the second coming forth, and both our bodies twitched and humped together as I finished filling her up with my jism.

“Mmm ... that was a good one, babe,” Dawn murmured while patting my shoulder.

“Ughhh...” was all I could manage to grunt, my mind blank post-ejaculation. I sagged onto my lover’s chest while she rubbed my back, sighing happily.

Setting my forehead down on the mattress, I took deep, relaxing breaths while the rest of my body went limp. Dawn continued to hold me close, nuzzling my neck and stroking my spine as she clutched me with all four limbs as if she never wanted to let me go.

But she would have to let me go ... sooner rather than later. I had a flight to catch and as nice as it would’ve been to remain here, joined together so intimately like this, we both knew it couldn’t last forever.

There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

Shut up, you. Lemme enjoy this.

I sighed and nuzzled Dawn’s neck with my nose, kissed her skin gently, and then whispered in her ear, “I love you. I’ll love you forever.”

“Hmmm...” she sighed happily, squeezing me with all four limbs again. But when I started to do a pushup to signal my readiness to exit, she sighed again, let her arms drop to the mattress, and uncrossed her legs to let me up.

Panting softly in her own orgasmic afterglow on the pillow beside us, Summer beamed brightly. “You two are soooo gorgeous together. I wish it looked like that when he makes love to me.”

Dawn smirked at her BFF. “You two look amazing together, too.”

“Not like that, we don’t. You guys are so soft and tender and ... intimate.”

I arched an eyebrow and looked at the redhead. “We can do soft and intimate if you want.”

Summer waved me off. “I think you always want to start soft and intimate with me, but then I start growling for you to fuck me harder, and you end up giving me what I want.”

Dawn laughed. “I think having him pin your legs back by your ears just ravaging you like a beast is your idea of ‘intimate’. That’s what makes Ben so good at what he does; he instinctively knows what you need.”

“You’re probably right. But in these moments when I’m next to you, watching you two writhing in harmony - so in sync with each other - I find myself...”

“Jealous?” I speculated.

“No, of course not. More ... I’m in awe of you two. I admire you two. You belong together.” Summer’s eyebrows waggled at the end of that.

Dawn immediately rolled her eyes and sighed. “We’re not having this conversation again.” My best friend quickly tapped my chest, and only then did I finally withdraw my dick from her sodden snatch and roll over.

Summer shrugged like it was no big deal, quickly rolling into the vacant spot and fastening her mouth to Dawn’s red-worn pussy like a hungry remora. Audible sucking sounds soon emanated.

Dawn slid her fingers through the redhead’s red hair and tugged on it just a bit the way she knew Summer liked it. Then she sighed and glanced over at me. With narrowed eyes, she repeated rather coldly, “We’re not having this conversation again.”

I held my hands up. “I didn’t say a thing.”

Dawn rolled her eyes and sighed again. I took that as my cue to roll off the bed and start getting dressed. I still had a flight to catch, remember? And we really didn’t need to have “this” conversation again.

As promised, Dawn had returned to The Nest the morning after Valentine’s night, having slept in her old bed back in The Birdhouse. I apologized for telling her I wanted to marry her. She apologized for overreacting and said I hadn’t said anything she didn’t think about on a daily basis as it was. She then deflected by scolding me for asking her to marry me while Adrienne and Summer were naked and holding onto my arms from either side. That’s when Adrienne interjected that she didn’t mind the thought of me marrying Dawn one bit and thought we belonged together as well, and Summer added that she’d already told Dawn multiple times (and her own mom) that Dawn and I belonged together. But then Dawn started getting defensive again, feeling like everyone was ganging up on her and that if she couldn’t take the pressure of everyone saying she should be my wife, how in the hell was she supposed to take the pressure of actually being my wife?

So that’s when I’d declared the conversation over and suggested we get out of the house and get brunch together. At least in public nobody would feel any pressure to discuss such personal matters. And then after brunch Dawn and Summer left to go visit Yvaine while Adrienne and I headed over to The Aerie to play with BJ.

When Adrienne and I got back to The Nest, she decided we needed some distractions and told me she was gonna text the Tri-Delts. She gave me five seconds to say something rather than just text them without my input, but I smiled, shrugged, and gestured for her to go ahead.

Kirstie and Nora came over thirty minutes later.

We were just getting past the foreplay portion of the evening when Whitney Arvidsson showed up as well. Apparently Nora had texted her, given that Whitney’s Valentine’s Day date hadn’t gone very well. And then when Summer and Dawn came home, they were only too happy to join in.

Life’s tough being a Sex God.

As expected, though, everything changed on Monday morning when I had to go back to work. Well, some things stayed the same: June was super-excited to return to the office and insisted on rechristening our conference table less than twenty minutes after we arrived.

But apart from the occasional brainstorming session, June, Penny, and I really did have to work really hard during the week trying to catch up on Project Strawberry. Having been locked out of the network until FinCEN officially gave JKE the green light to let us back in, there was a virtual mountain of information for us to dig through. None of us took lunch breaks and June and I never left the office before 8pm, and sometimes stayed as late as 10pm. Quite honestly, I found myself wishing that Adrienne had kept her awesome corner apartment so that June and I could just sleep somewhere nearby rather than commute back and forth to Berkeley. On the other hand, at least I got to see BJ every morning before school.

My Nestmates went out of their way to make me feel comfortable whenever I got home. I got pampered, really, walking in to find dinner ready on the table, three gorgeous young women only too eager to kiss me in welcome, and on Wednesday they welcomed me while clad in sexy lingerie. That was the night Summer crawled under the table to give me a blowjob while I ate my dinner because she simply couldn’t wait any longer.

Most nights the four of us fell into bed together for some amazing group sex sessions, although there was a minor hiccup on Tuesday night. Apparently Dawn and Summer had gotten into “this” conversation again, with Summer trying to be encouraging but Dawn wasn’t having it and she ended up heading over to The Birdhouse even before I came home from work. She did come home late at night though, ready to apologize and eager to feel me spurting liquid love deep inside her very core.

Most mornings I woke up cuddled together with one or more beautiful, busty babes who were only too happy to send me off to work well-fucked and with a smile on my face. The other mornings I got abruptly woken up when something tickled my balls and I instinctively thrust my morning wood into somebody’s throat.

Adrienne, however, only spent Monday night with me. In plain simple fact, I woke up too early for her on weekdays, and although she was happy to get plugged up with cum on Tuesday morning, for the rest of the week she’d have sex with me at night and then go back to her own room so she could sleep in the next day. It turned out she didn’t really like sleeping alone though, so after Adrienne woke up by herself Wednesday morning and complained about it, Summer volunteered to go join her Wednesday and Thursday nights so she could have someone to snuggle with.

Thursday night, after Summer and Adrienne had gone over to Adrienne’s bedroom, Dawn and I had “this” conversation again. She wound up crying in my arms, disappointed in herself for not being strong enough to handle the pressure, while I held her close and reassured her that my love for her was not dependent on a government piece of paper.

Friday night, Dawn and Summer went to Dawn’s bedroom after sex to let Adrienne have me to all to herself, given that we could finally sleep in. Adrienne actually woke up before me; I was exhausted and slept in past noon on Saturday. I then spent the bulk of the day doing relationship maintenance with the twins, Kim, and BJ. We even managed to find time to play 3-on-3 basketball with Bert as well, just like in the old days. June and Eve had gone home for the weekend to visit their parents. They still weren’t sure how to explain they were both now in lesbian relationships, but in the meantime my being June’s cover boyfriend still allowed them to stay in Berkeley most weekends, although not all.

And now it was Sunday.

Time to catch a flight.

Fully-dressed and with my suitcase already packed and ready to go downstairs, I approached the still-naked girls in my bed. Summer had already finished snowballing my load back to her BFF, and they looked achingly gorgeous together in each other’s arms. I gave first Summer and then Dawn sweet kisses. Instead of pulling away, I let my lips linger on Dawn’s for an extra few seconds, just sort of caressing them with a featherlight touch while I reminded her with my gaze, ‘I love you, and I’ll love you forever.’

She pulled back a bit, gave me a sad smile, touched my lips with her fingertips, and sighed while nodding. In my head I heard her reply, I love you too. In my whole damn life, I’ve never stopped.

I left the room and headed downstairs. Adrienne had a bagel and coffee ready for me. June had also come over and currently had her laptop open, her fingers rat-a-tat typing away at the keyboard. A limousine would be picking us up shortly.

“Excited to go back to New York?” I asked Adrienne.

My Tigress grinned, eyes glowing. “Can’t wait.”

“This is soooo cool,” Penny breathed from right behind me as our concierge escort opened the door and brought us into the security checkpoint from the side. A TSA agent was waiting for us, opened a retractable barrier from the nearest metal detector, and started waving us through.

Having done this with Adrienne before, I took the whole thing in stride, but when I glanced back I found Penny and June both looking over at the snaking line of humanity in the “regular people” security line. Some of them were looking over curiously at us as well, but there wasn’t any time to linger and within a minute, all four of us had been passed through security.

Adrienne and I, of course, acted like this was the most normal thing in the world. She held my hand and strutted through the airport like she owned the place, the two of us following our escort to the airline lounge with Penny and June trailing directly behind.

My two JKE subordinates retained their wide-eyed expressions while the four of us relaxed in a private room, waiting for our flight. When the official boarding time stamped on our boarding passes arrived and none of us made any moves to get up, Penny started to get nervous, but I reassured her everything was fine. And then only at the last minute did our concierge bring us to the gate and usher us onto the plane just before they closed the doors.

We had the four front-row seats of first class against the bulkhead, with Penny and June on the left side of the plane, and me and Adrienne on the right. We quickly and quietly took our seats, and moments later the flight attendants closed the door and started the safety briefing. It was only the second time she was flying this route since agreeing to take on a higher-profile role at ICON, and she didn’t recognize any of the flight attendants anymore. But her name was still instantly recognized on the passenger manifest, and the airline staff went out of their way to provide her and her three companions with extra-special VIP service.

The flight itself was uneventful. In the middle of the afternoon with most people on the plane remaining awake, we didn’t try to pull off a Mile-High Club encounter or anything like that. We did have a round of champagne and Penny definitely geeked out over the first-class service. In the end, Adrienne and I both took naps while June and Penny stayed awake watching movies on the touchscreen monitors that folded out from their armrests.

Pain suddenly blossomed in my right hand. I jerked upright in my chair, eyes flying wide open as I stammered instinctively, “Sorry Professor Isakova!”

But Viktoriya did not stand in front of me. Dawn did not sit beside me. Instead it was Adrienne, a sly smirk on her face as she waggled a small stainless steel fork in front of me.

From the other side of the aisle, June and Penny were both giggling. I shot them a harsh glare and muttered, “That wasn’t funny.”

June canted her head to the side. “I’m not an expert on socially-acceptable humor, but that was funny.”

I rolled my eyes and then turned to shoot a glare at Adrienne.

The gorgeous supermodel smirked back and said, “Elevate your seatback. We’re landing.”

I groaned, hit the button on my armrest, and felt the seat hydraulics raise my backrest. I let out a long yawn and belatedly covered my mouth, knocking down the blanket that I didn’t realize had been spread over my chest and shoulders.

Adrienne clucked like a mother hen, grabbed the corner of the blanket, and pulled it up and over my shoulder again. She tucked me in and gave me a warm smile that gave me similarly warm and fuzzy feelings inside, and I smiled back at her. She pinched my cheek, and I felt like I could hear her voice in my head saying, You look so cute like that.

I yawned again, this time uncaring for covering my mouth and lazily set the side of my head against the contoured headrest, deciding to close my eyes again for as long as I could.

The four of us got another VIP escort from the jet, through the terminal, and into a waiting limousine. June was pretty chill, but Penny had the same wide-eyed stare she’d had at everything else on this trip. Apparently, it was her first time riding in a limo (she’d met us at the San Francisco airport), and I found myself smiling to see the expression of childlike wonder on her face at what I had started to take for granted as standard operating procedure when traveling with Adrienne.

Upon arrival at the hotel, another VIP concierge met us at the limo and ushered us straight to the elevators without having to bother with the check-in desk. A special keycard was needed to access the top of floor of the hotel, and minutes later we went around the corner to the end of a short hallway with one door on the left, one door on the right, and double-doors at the end.

The concierge held up a keycard, waved it across the lock, and then opened the door on the left while politely stating, “Miss Song...”

June smiled, bowed her head, and took the proffered keycard before entering her hotel room. The door started closing as the concierge stepped out of the way, but not before we heard June squeal from inside, “Ohmigawd! Moon!!!”

And then the door closed.

Penny, wide-eyed again, jerked a thumb at June’s door. “Was there someone else waiting in there?”

I chuckled and shot a look at Adrienne. Adrienne grinned knowingly, but neither of us answered verbally.

Penny’s eyes got a little bit wider. “There isn’t anybody waiting in MY room, is there?”

Now Adrienne frowned and shook her head. “Is there anybody in New York you would’ve wanted to be waiting for you?”

“No, no, of course not.”

The concierge then opened the room across the hall from June’s, gestured inward, and stated politely, “Miss Wiscinski...”

Penny looked like she wasn’t sure whether or not to believe Adrienne, but she took a deep breath, plucked the keycard out of the concierge’s hand, and then went into her room. There were no squeals of surprise before the door closed.

Finally, the concierge handed two keycards to Adrienne, bowed his head politely, and stated, “Miss Dennis ... Always a pleasure.” He then bowed his head to me and walked away rather than open our door.

Adrienne smiled and watched him go. Only after he had turned the hallway corner did she finally waggle her eyebrows at me and then turn to face the double-doors.

Right before she waved the keycard, though, I asked quietly, “Are WE expecting anybody in our room?”

Adrienne seemed a little startled by my tone. To be honest, I was a little surprised myself, as I hadn’t intended it to be so ... scornful. She blinked twice, took her hand away from the door, and slumped her shoulders. “Tiger ... I...”

I sighed and waved her on. “No, it’s fine. Go on, go on.”

She winced. “You’re mad.”

I raised both eyebrows. “I take that as confirmation that there IS someone waiting for us behind those doors?”

“I ... I thought...”

“It’s fine, really.”

She winced again. “You do realize you’re saying the word ‘fine’. And we all know what ‘fine’ means.”

I sighed. “I’m not actually opposed to you inviting a guest to welcome us to New York, and it’s not like you can un-invite her if she’s already in the room.”

“It’s a suite. A really nice suite.”

“It was a great idea.”

Adrienne arched an eyebrow. “I can tell how thrilled you are by the blissful excitement in your voice and expression,” she muttered drily.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Like I said, I’m not opposed.”

“And yet somehow you’re ... opposed.”

“No, not opposed. I’m...” I took a deep breath and looked upward, searching for the right expression. “I’m overreacting.”

“Overreacting to what?”

“Right when you were about to open the door, you got that... ‘diabolical’ look you always get in situations like this.”

“I don’t have a ‘diabolical’ look.”

“You totally have a ‘diabolical’ look. It’s the same expression you had at the Tri-Delt Halloween Party when you sprung the pledge bounties on me. It’s the same expression you had in Bora Bora right before you tied me to the bed. I think I’ve been Pavlovian-conditioned to expect... ‘Adrienne’s selfishness’ ... when I see that expression on your face.”

She pouted, her shoulders sagged, and I could tell she was feeling a bit low. The pain from me telling her I didn’t trust her as far back as Bora Bora, maybe even as far back as Halloween, still haunted her. With a gulp, she mumbled despondently, “I was trying to surprise you. I mean yes, I wanted to feel a girl’s supple tongue on my clit while your fat cock is thrust eight inches up my ass tonight, but this was straight up something I thought would be a nice surprise for you too. I mean ... I guess ... I’m sorry. I guess you would rather I tell you upfront that I’m inviting guests in case you would’ve preferred some quiet alone time with just the two of us. Ohmigosh, that’s it, isn’t it? We just spent all day with Penny and June and you’ve been trying to tone down the affection in front of Penny and here you were thinking you’d finally get some private time with me and ... Oh, Tiger. I’m so sorry!”

“Relax, relax.”

“I’m doing it again! I’m railroading you into an unwanted situation out of a selfish desire to--”

“Hey, hey, seriously, relax.” I hugged Adrienne and then mashed my lips against hers to shut her up. She whimpered but responded to my kiss by kissing me back. And I kept up the liplock until she physically calmed down within my embrace.

When I finally pulled away, Adrienne gave me a look of worry and asked, “Did you not want some alone time with just the two of us?”

“I mean yes, that sounds nice, but I honestly wasn’t expecting that one way or the other. I didn’t have any specific plans, nor am I disappointed that you invited a friend to wait for us. I mean now that we’re here, I find myself wondering: Which girl? Don’t answer that. You do like your surprises, and I know that up until the moment I asked you were all aquiver with excitement inside at surprising me. I know you enjoy that thrill, and I’m happy to let you have that thrill, so ultimately I’m better off not knowing.”

“I’m confused. Did you, or did you not, want me telling you I was inviting guests?”

“Not telling me. Surprises like this are good, so long as whoever is behind that door isn’t being coerced into the situation like pledge bounties or stuff like that. I mean ... I honestly loved it when you had Moon waiting in my room that first JKE trip. And I could hear the excitement in June’s voice that you had Moon meeting her here tonight. Wait, that reminds me ... You DID clear this with Kim, right?”

“Of course. I would never interfere in their relationship like this. Kim knows and approved me keeping this a secret from June.” Adrienne frowned. “But I’m confused. If you were alright with me surprising you with guests tonight, why did you get all frowny and have that look of utter disappointment in me?”

“My fault. I’m sorry. I overreacted to your diabolical look. It’s like ... scar trauma. But honestly, I’m fine.”

Adrienne made a face. “Why don’t I believe you?”

I sighed. “Because I overreacted this time.”

Adrienne shook her head. “It’s not an isolated overreaction. You don’t trust me.”

“I DO trust you. Just like at the Chocolate and Cream party, I told you to go ahead and say, ‘Trust me, Tiger.’”

“At the Chocolate and Cream party, as soon as I pulled out the blindfolds we both knew what I was about to do. It wasn’t really a surprise.”

“A week ago for Valentine’s, you asked me to wait downstairs while you went up and got ready. You said your ‘Trust me, Tiger’ then, too.”

Adrienne made a face. “Once again, though, you had to tell me, ‘Go ahead and say it.’ We both knew I wanted to say it, but I didn’t until I knew I had your permission. That’s not natural.”

“It’s not,” I agreed. “But I want us to get to the point where you feel comfortable saying it to me again. This, honestly, should’ve been one of those situations where it was fine. Really.”

“I just ... I don’t know where to draw that line. We’re not on the same page anymore.”

“We’re not, I concede. But we’re getting there again. Conversations like this - while not tons of fun - are part of us communicating. We’ll get there again. I’ll understand if you want to err on the side of caution for a bit until we get a better sense of where to draw the line. But for tonight and every day going forth, I’m telling you that as long as it’s nothing more serious than one girl waiting in a hotel room to welcome us to another city, I’m totally fine with it.

Adrienne bit her lip and frowned again. Wincing, she asked, “‘One’ girl?”

I blinked. “Is there more than one?”

“There’re two.”

“Oh. Uh ... That’s fine, actually. Sorry, I didn’t actually mean to limit you to just one.”

“One for each of us was the theory. I mean threesomes are great and all, but having both Dawn and Summer with us for the past few weeks has really spoiled me.”

I grinned. “The three of you have spoiled ME.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, but at the same time...” Her voice trailed off, and she looked haunted again. “At the same time, I am terrified of losing your trust again.”

I quickly stepped forward to give her a warm hug. Not sexual. Just ... comfortable. And after turning my face to nuzzle her neck a bit, I murmured, “I DO trust you, my Tigress. I do.”

“No you don’t,” she whimpered. “You’re doing what you always do. You react the way you actually feel - in this case, I spring a surprise, you think I look diabolical, and you get that sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach. Then when I get all sad, you backpedal for my sake and make me feel better by saying you’re alright with it. That’s an easy thing for you to do now that we both know there are two girls in that suite waiting for us and there’s no graceful way for us to back out now. But at the end of the day, I’m surprising you with a selfish thing you didn’t actually want.”

“I couldn’t want it because I hadn’t thought of it. Now that the idea is here, seriously, I’m all for it.”

Adrienne’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve gotten a lot better at lying since high school. I think maybe because you learned how to lie to yourself?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She sighed and held me at arm’s length. “I know you mean well, but I know you. I know you want to reassure me and tell me what I want to hear. But the reality is that I believe you actually trust me as much as Dawn believes you’d actually be okay with her fucking another man.”

I frowned and looked into her eyes. Adrienne’s hazel irises glowed golden when she was excited or happy, but they were a dull brown right now. “Why don’t you believe me? Why don’t either of you believe me?”

“Because we both know we’ve let you down. We both know we’ve done things to earn your mistrust.”

“Bora Bora was a long time ago for us. Dawn’s car crash trauma was years ago.” I bit my lip. “Two weeks ago you didn’t seem to fear my mistrust. I know you offered to talk to Dawn to help her out on my behalf, but I worry that helping her through her anxieties is bringing out your own.”

Adrienne mused on that. “Maybe.”

I sighed. “We’re obviously not all the way recovered from Bora Bora. Unfortunately, I think the only way you’ll ultimately be reassured that I trust you again is by the two of us getting there over time. Well, either that, or we can keep putting ourselves in situations like tonight where you pull surprises on me and I can demonstrate that I trust you.”

“Even though you quite obviously failed to demonstrate that to me tonight.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re not the one who needs to apologize.”

I sighed.

“You can’t lie to me about this. You rather liked the new M.O. of me asking you in advance if you’re onboard with stuff instead of springing them on you as surprises.”

I sighed again.

“See, you don’t trust me.”

“It’s not a lack of trust. It’s that...” I sighed again. “Okay fine, I’m kinda over being kept in the dark, period.”

“So I should’ve told you I had girls waiting for us in the suite instead of just springing it on you like this.”

I shook my head, took a deep breath, and stated evenly, “I want to let you have these surprises because I know how much you enjoy them and yes, for your sake, I’d like to let you keep them. I’m sorry I overreacted.”

“You want to let me keep them for my sake, but I see the hesitancy in your eyes right now. You’re still scarred from me keeping you in the dark about so many other things, which makes me want to stop for your sake.”

I took a deep breath, looked Adrienne straight in the eyes, and said, “I love you. I’m going to love you forever. I recognize and acknowledge how hard you’re trying to change, to be better, for my sake. I respect the effort, but at the same time I don’t want to neuter what makes you special. And you ARE special. You’re my Tigress, and for years and years I never wanted you to be caged.”

“I told you years ago ... on a flight to New York as I recall, that I happen to like feeling like I’m caged - so long as you’re the one that’s caging me. I love feeling like I’m ‘yours’. Because I AM yours. Forever, Tiger. Forever and Always.”

I nodded, leaned in and kissed her.

Adrienne kissed me back, wrapping her arms around my head and increasing her lip pressure until the fire ignited her nuclear passion. She moaned a little into my mouth, and a moment later another moan joined her.

The second moan caught me by surprise, and I opened my eyes and cocked my ear. The sound had been faint, and I realized it had floated through June’s door. The soundproofing was decent, but not perfect, and the next time a moan floated through the door, Adrienne cocked her head and giggled.

“That’s Moon,” she remarked lightly.

Another moan. “And that’s June.”

“Sixty-nine?”

Adrienne shook her head. “I sent Moon a fresh set of Ben Juniors. My money’s on them tribbing with one of the flexible double-dongs. Come to think of it, Dawn and I did that for Valentine’s and then you pushed into her ass, but I never got to feel that particular pleasure.”